For weeks now it has been raining almost daily. Which was fine at first, because it allowed me to sleep at night without marinating in my own sweat and it made my garden look like more like a jungle again instead of a desert. Unfortunately, meanwhile it’s more or less on its way to a swamp.

And while I first welcomed those big fluffy clouds after all that glaring sunshine that had hurt my eyes, seeing nothing but a whirling grey mass overhead for weeks isn’t quite as funny anymore. For all I know the sky above those clouds could have turned green in the meantime.

And it’s gotten cold enough that I already have to wear a jacket again when I’m outside. Now, I still do maintain that I like cooler weather more than unreasonable heat, but it is still supposed to be summer over here. And in summer I generally don’t like to have to lug around a jacket (much less a fucking umbrella) with me when I go out. As much as I love autumn, August is really too early for it to start.

This is all getting a bit ridiculous. I really wouldn’t mind some rain or even a little thunderstorm every day. But not all friggin day. A little sunshine in between all the rain really wouldn’t go amiss.

Ah well, but at least I have enough good books to read so I can ignore this whole outside world. I just started Stephen King’s “Under The Dome” a couple days ago and so far I love it.

And there is the little matter of this year’s NaNoWriMo that’s coming up pretty soon. For once I have started prepping early and it’s going well so far.

So screw the weather. It could be worse after all: at least I’m not living in Pakistan, so I guess I don’t really have all that much reason to complain.

I’m not a big fan of hot weather anyway, but now I’m really getting fed up with the damn heat. We don’t have air conditioning in our house, so the only thing that even marginally helps is opening all windows overnight and locking everything up again in the morning. Or, that would help if it got any cooler at night. Which it really doesn’t, so I’m marinating in my own sweat all night and can’t sleep well and then the sun comes up and everything gets only worse. Is it any wonder this friggin’ heat makes me crabby?

Yesterday it rained. For all of 10 minutes. And not like a real downpour, more like an unmotivated drizzle. Half an hour later there was no trace of it left.

My garden is wilting, my pond is falling dry, my dog is suffering and I’m starting to seriously contemplate moving to Alaska. *grmpf*

And if that wasn’t enough to aggravate me, there is this stupid Soccer World Cup going on, which is all that everybody is talking about. Unfortunately, the german team seems to play rather well, so they’re still in the running to win this bloody thing and everybody is going crazy about them. I don’t care about soccer at the best of times, but by now I really can’t stand it anymore. Everytime I see someone drive around with these ridiculous little flags on their car I want to just ram them and push them off the street. And if I have to hear that ridiculous expression “Sommermärchen” once again I’m afraid I will punch somebody in the face.

All in all I’m more than ready for this summer to be over. I wish I could just fall asleep right now and wake up in September.

Funnily, it had an endorsement from (of all people!) Stephenie Meyer on the cover, which normally would have been reason enough for me to never touch the book, if I hadn’t read so many good things about it elsewhere.

I found the story to be surprisingly fantastic. Surprisingly, because normally books that get so much praise rarely live up to that in my opinion. But this one definitely did. This is one of the rare stories where I caught myself thinking “damn, I wish I had written that!” all the time. And from a certain point on (I’d say around chapter 2 or so) I just couldn’t put it down anymore.

I already ordered the sequel on Amazon today and can’t wait for it to get delivered to my doorstep. And then starts the long wait for the third one, which is scheduled to be released in August.

The last time I was this excited about a trilogy was with Scott Westerfeld’s “Uglies” trilogy (which meanwhile consists of 4 books).

Of course, many of them are just for documentation purposes. Since I developed this unhealthy obsession with gardening this year, I want to document when different flowers started showing up or started to bloom or whatever, just so I can go back next year when the wait for them to show themselves seems endless again and make sure that it’s just my general impatience that’s making me impatient.

I have been terribly impatient this year, since the bloody winter seemed just never ending. But when I compare my photos of, say, early March to the latest ones it is quite nice to see how much is already going on. It is just so much nicer to look out at green trees and colorful flowerbeds than at bare branches and naked earth.

Right now I have a thing for tulips, although most of them are already dying again. Because the weather wasn’t right to take good pictures I missed out on most of them again. Ah well, there’s always next year I guess…

Funnily enough when I go through my garden I mostly tend to notice the tiny flowers, the ones normal people either don’t see at all or classify mostly as weeds.

Some of them might be weeds, but in my garden that doesn’t automatically mean they have to go. As long as they’re pretty and don’t run over the other flowers I am more than happy to have most of them around, not least because they are usually more useful to the insects than many of the exotic plants that are grown in normal gardens.

Plus, and this is a big plus in my eyes: they tend to need not much tending and nurturing. They come and go as they please, they grow wherever they like, need no protection in winter, throw around their seeds liberally and basically just save me a lot of work and give me more time to enjoy my garden as it should be enjoyed: in a lounge chair with a Mai Tai in one hand and a book in the other.

What makes me happiest is that my favorite tree finally unfurls its beautiful leaves. That one always takes the longest to start doing anything each spring, but when it finally does I know that summer is really not that far away anymore.

I love my garden.

So I’ve got a new obsession.

No surprise there, really. From watching the first promo for this show on german tv I kinda knew I would end up liking it. And after I actually saw the first 2 episodes I knew I would have to get my hands on all the available ones in english.

I have watched them all pretty much straight through in 2 days (yes, I have no life). And now I am chomping at the bit to get to see more and pissed off that it will take until June (June!! WTF?) for the series to return to american television.

Why do I always have to stumble on a great new show when they are either on hiatus or on the verge of getting cancelled (or both)? I mean, I am all for german tv picking up current shows (like they did with Castle) and not waiting, like they used to, for years to actually show them (like they did with Firefly, which aired in Germany more than 5 years after its cancellation). In some cases I’d just like to find a show only after there are already 4 full seasons available, because then the catching up is so much more fun.

Anyway, at least I know that I can look forward to 12 new episodes of Lie To Me and I can still hold out a bit of hope that there will actually be a third season next year, even though it doesn’t look too good right now.

So, why am I so fascinated by this show?

Well, it’s actually 2 things:

Firstly, it’s a show about lying and about how to spot liars and the tagline of it might just as well be “Everybody Lies”, if that one wasn’t already taken. It’s just fascinating to watch how the team exposes all kinds of lies in other people, but at the same time some of them (namely Lightman himself) get away with the most preposterous lies, because they just know how to lie better.

It’s also interesting to know that most of the stuff they use in the show is based on actual scientific research and the character of Cal Lightman ist based on the real scientist Paul Ekman. Of course, a lot of it is dumbed down for the general audience, but it’s still close enough to the truth to be fascinating.

And speaking of fascinating, my second reason is of course Tim Roth. Since I watch a lot of movies I had obviously heard the name before, but I had never consciously noticed him in anything before, even though I do know some of the movies he was in.

From where I stand now I am absolutely flabbergasted how this guy could not pop up on my radar for so long. To say that I find him brilliant would be pretty much the understatement of the year. You know how I always rave about Hugh Laurie being one of my most adored actors ever? Well, Tim Roth is now standing right beside Hugh on that pedestal in my mind. Considering that the characters of Cal Lightman and Greg House share a lot of traits that’s probably fitting.

The upside is, now I can look forward to watch (or in some cases re-watch) dozens of movies Tim was in, which should be a treat. Maybe that will tide me over until June.

One other thing I love about Lie To Me is that Tim was allowed to keep his adorable english accent. It is so refreshing seeing a british actor on an american tv show actually walking around calling everybody “luv” and “mate”. I wish Hugh Laurie would have been allowed to do that on House as well.

But of course the show does not exclusively revolve around Cal Lightman (not that I would mind). There is also the rest of his team:

Dr. Gillian Foster, Cal’s business partner and closest friend. She has a tendency to mother other people, especially Cal, which can sometimes be a bit grating. But she’s also very much on his level, professionally, so there is a lot of mutual respect between the two of them. In season 1 she and Cal were strictly friends, because Gillian was married, but since she got divorced in season 2, the writers do seem to think about starting a relationship between them. I hope they don’t, because I liked their friendship so much more.

Ria Torres, the newbie on the team and a natural when it comes to spotting lies (whereas the rest of the team had to actually study to achieve their kind of insightfulness). She definitely has some issues and still has to learn not to constantly overstep boundaries, but her clashes with Lighhtman are always entertaining to watch.

Eli Loker, one of the younger scientists in the Lightman Group. He starts out as a compulsive truth teller in season 1, but pretty soon gets derailed by real life and ends up having to choose between getting fired or staying on as an unpaid intern. Not really sure if I like the direction they have taken him in, but I do still like the character.

Ben Reynolds, a new addition to the team at the end of season 1. He is an FBI agent and was introduced as somebody who can liaise with the law enforcment when it’s necessary. He’s also good to have around when things get dangerous, because the scientists are all not exactly well-equipped to deal with things like that (which I find hilarious).

Then there’s Emily Lightman, Cal’s teenage daughter. Surprisingly (considering I don’t really care much for children and teenies on tv) she has developed into the second really likeable and completely not-annoying teens on tv (the other one is Alexis Castle on Castle). I love the relationship she has with her father.

You really wouldn’t wanna play poker with these guys.

It’s nice to have a show where I like pretty much the whole cast. On most shows there are at least one or two characters that totally get on my nerves. But of course the main draw for me is Tim Roth.

Cal Lightman is such a delightful character to watch. He is not quite as intentionally rude as Greg House, but still has a tendency to be very direct and not care the least bit if he pisses people off. And he can lie like nobody’s business, which is a trait I always admired.

Another thing that I find adorable is probably less Cal and more Tim. Look at that promo pic:

It’s probably not the best example, but it’s the best picture I have to make my point. Notice how everyone stands or sits in a really artificial posture? Except Cal. He slouches.

The character does that a lot in the show, but I also noticed Tim doing it in interviews and such. Now, there’s nothing inherently sexy in having a bad posture. But I love the fact that he is so incredibly comfortable in his own skin and just doesn’t give a damn about what it looks like to other people. Besides, I do the exact same thing all the time – only I wouldn’t be self-confident enough to do it while I’m on camera.

I spent the better part of winter grumbling about the snow and the cold and the dark, but also checking out pretty much every single gardening book from the library (and they got shelves of them) and making ever more ambitious plans on how to make our garden even more beautiful than last year. I also never knew how many gardening magazines there are out there. Now I know, because they are strewn all over the house along with the library books.

Unfortunately, most of those plans I made would involve insane amounts of money and/or work to realise them, so I had to scale back my projects to a more manageable size. But there is still a lot I want to tackle as soon as possible. We already started on some stuff, but that is for another post (when I have before and after pictures at hand).

For now, I am sowing seeds left, right and center and check them every 5 minutes to see if anything happened yet. If they all really grow we will be up to our ears in plants in a couple of weeks. Needless to say I have no clue where to find the space to put them all. Right now every windowsill in the house looks something like this:

*

Aren’t they cute? I feel like a proud mom or something.

But what I really love about spring are these fellows:

And those as well:

They show up in all kinds of random places all over the garden, which I think is fantastic. I love it when plants wander around and find the place they like best all by themselves (why does that make me think of Ents? Never mind.).

And since I joined a gardening forum (yeah, I know: what next?), I finally figured out the macro function on my camera (I won’t tell how long I own that thing already, it is way too embarrassing to admit). Which allows me to take pictures like these:

Yes, it was raining today. And yes, I am aware that it is not quite crystal sharp, but hey, it was raining!

Can you tell I love crocusses? To tell the truth, I am a bit obsessed with them right now. They come in such pretty colors.

I don’t even know what the name is for these little ones in english. But aren’t those colors fantastic?

Yeah, you wouldn’t think this is a macro shot, but normally the flower would only be half the size on any photo I took.

But it’s not only the pretty flowers I’m having fun with. There’s also this:

and that:

That last one is really, really tiny in real life. It doesn’t even look like moss, it just looks like some fine green film on the wall.

That one is small as well, but not quite as tiny (it’s a cactus, by the way, in case you’re wondering). But it looks a lot cooler from up close.

And this one is just cute with all the rain drops (did I mention it was raining?). It’s Alchemilla (lady’s mantle).

And this is the proof that my clematis has survived the frost, which is always a gamble with this thing. But it looks fine this year.

Ah, I’m gonna have so much fun with this macro stuff, I tell ya.

Here is another flower I found just yesterday (on a cemetery, of all places).

I already find the normal variety of snowdrops beautful, but this one? Gorgeous.

Of course, some of them went home with me, even though my mom warned me it is bad luck to take things home from a cemetery (yeah, well, good thing she doesn’t know where most of the ferns in our garden are from).

I could go on like this for hours, but I’ll stop now with the flower pics. Just one more of a recent aquisition:

Looks like I will finally get my asian corner somewhere in the garden. Shame that the figurine is quite small, but I think he looks neat. I just have to find a better place for him. For now I placed him so I can see him from the kitchen table. At night I light the little candle in front of him so he doesn’t have to meditate in the dark.

Looks better than garden gnomes anyway.

But going through the list I couldn’t help compiling some statistics:

No. of books not finished: 11

No. of bookrings and -rays through Bookcrossing: 16

No. of books I got from the library (I had to guess on that one, since I don’t write that down):  25

No. of books in german:  21 (most of those were non-fiction books and came from the library)

No. of non-fiction books: 34

No. of collections of short stories: 2

No. of audiobooks: 2 (both of whom I didn’t finish)

No. of graphic novels: 2

No. of YA and children’s books:  5

I find those numbers quite interesting and in come cases surprising. For one, I could have sworn I listened to more audiobooks last year, so either I forgot to list some of them or I am imagining things and hearing voices that aren’t there. Both possibilities are equal, I guess.

I also thought I would have read more YA lit and short stories. Since I am pretty sure that I never forgot to log an actual physical book that passed through my hands, I will have to accept that those numbers don’t lie.

As I said, picking favorites is not easy, even if I leave out re-reads and non-fiction books (an honorable mention has to go to “Catcher in the rye”, which I rediscovered by accident after loathing it with a passion – after re-reading it I now love it equally as passionately).

I went on a serious Preston & Child reading binge, thanks to my rediscovered love for Agent Pendergast. But the kinds of thrillers those two write are like fast food: fun to read, but not very filling. Same goes for Michael Chrichton, whom I gave a chance for the first time last year. His books are entertaining, but nothing that stays with me for long.

As always it is easier for me to pick the bad examples, the books that either bored me to tears or annoyed me or just generally seemed pointless. I call this one my Twilight-category.

Biggest disappointments 2009:

Mary Roach – Bonk

After loving “Stiff” so much I had high expectations for this one. Alas, although it is mildly funny, it didn’t really hold my interest and I ended up skimming the second half of the book just to get it over with. Maybe it was just the subject matter: I find rotting corpses endlessly more fascinating than human mating and sexual rituals, make of that what you want. *shrug*

JG Ballard – The Drought  + The Drowned World

I gave this guy 2 chances to impress me, but both times he failed miserably. Seldom have I read more boring books set in post-apocalyptic settings. Post-apo is normally my favorite genre, but Ballard’s other books got kicked off my wishlist after I tried to slug my way through those 2 meandering stories.

Julian Barnes – England, England + Love, etc.

I don’t remember why I ever put Julian Barnes’ books on my wishlist anyway (it must have been a recommendation from someone), but the two I tried to read bored me silly. That man has such an awful writing style that it turned reading his books into work. Definitely not an author I will ever give another chance.

Stephen King – Duma Key (audio)

The first Stephen King novel I absolutely could not finish. I found my attention wandering every five minutes and had to rewind to the start of the chapter a couple of times, because I couldn’t for the life of me remember what had happened.  I gave up 5 or so chapters in. Maybe audiobooks just aren’t my thing, but I doubt that this one is any better on paper.

Anita Diamant – The Last Days of Dogtown

Another instance of too high expectations. Loved “The Red Tent”, but this one, while not really bad, just left me cold.

Christopher Moore – Practical Demonkeeping

This is the second and in all probability the last book of this author I read. I can’t count the numbers of times I have read high praise for him and how hysterically funny he is supposed to be. I read “Fluke” the year before and now this one and I just don’t get it. Give me Carl Hiaasen and Christopher Brookmyre any day, but Moore is off my reading list.

Stieg Larsson – The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo

This one was easily the disappointment of the year for me, although I should have known better than to trust the hype. Again, not exactly a really bad book per sé, but I didn’t like it much at all and I completely fail to see what is supposed to make it such a hit. It went on for far longer than it had to, the female main character is fucking annoying, and half the story is about things that are completely irrelevant to the main plot (maybe they get relevant in the sequels, but I am not going to read them to find out).

Alice Walker – Now is the time to open your heart

I have no idea what this book was supposed to be about. I threw it aside after 50 pages or so.

Marina Lewycka – Two Caravans

Another one I just couldn’t bring myself to finish. Her first book was so great that I kept trying to enjoy this one, but it just didn’t work. The scenes with the chickens did it for me and that was it.

Margaret Forster – Keeping the World Away

Nothing much to say about this one. It was easily readable, but meandered along a bit pointlessly and was easily forgettable.

Iris Murdoch – The Message to the Planet

My first and last Iris Murdoch. No idea what this one is about either. It was so dense and hard to read that I ended up pondering single words or sentences and immediately forgot the plot – if, indeed, it has any.  Gave up after a couple tries, because I just couldn’t bring myself to pick it up again.

Top Ten of most enjoyable books 2009:

Christopher Brookmyre – One fine day in the middle of the night

He is a new discovery for me and I think I will have a lot of fun with his other books as well if this one is any indication.

Richard Russo – Straight Man

Ruso just never disappoints. I have read almost all of his books now and they are firmly in the “can be re-read anytime”-stack on my shelves.

Alan Moore – Watchmen

Who would have thought that I could enjoy graphic novels so much? Certainly not me. Usually the story arcs in graphic novels (or, as I still call them: comics) are too short for my taste and it hardly seems worth it to start reading them. But this one seemed to go on forever and had an actual, intricate story to tell. Once I was finished I’d have loved to start over again right away. Unfortunately I had to send it on its way, but I will get myself an own copy.

Michel Faber – Under The Skin

This one was quite a surprise. I picked it up in a secondhand shop in London, because the blurb sounded vaguely interesting. The story turned out to be something completely different from what I expected, but I enjoyed it a lot.

Eminem – The Way I Am

What can I say? I just love the guy. Not only his music, but him as a person. It was great to read his story in his own words and see all those rather private photos and his scribbled song lyrics. This is the only big format hardcover book I bought at full price in the last couple of years – and I don’t regret a Cent of it.

Allen Steele – Coyote

Judging from the reading list I did slide back into science fiction quite a bit last year. This is one of the books responsible for that. I had never heard of the guy before, but couldn’t put the book down after I started it. The 2 sequels are already waiting on my TBR shelf.

Larry Niven et. al. – Falling Angels

Another sci fi story. An enjoyable romp through science fiction fandom. Good story and frequent chuckles. Love it.

Neal Stephenson – Snow Crash

The first book of this author I read, but certainly not the last one. Mindbending ideas about the future of the internet, great characters and a plot that doesn’t let up. Awesome.

Joanne Harris – Runemarks

Tis is one of the YA books I read last year. Totally different from Joanne Harris’ other books, but just as enjoyable. Sometimes, when reading such books, I am a little bit sad not to have a daughter I could share them with.

Octavia E. Butler – Kindred

It is a tragedy that Ms. Butler died already. She was such a talented storyteller. This is the third of her books I have read and I enjoyed them all immensely. I am spacing out the other ones, because I still want to have something to look forward to from her.

All in all 2009 was not a bad reading year. 2010 is shaping up to be even better, I think. I am already on book #27 (Garth Nix – Sabriel) and even though many of them were gardening books, there were also some really good novels as well.

And while it was a great feeling to accomplish this two times in a row (after all, there are many people who take part for years before making it over the finish line even once), it was mixed in with a little disappointment as well.

Yes, I did write another 50.000 words during November (58.678 to be exact) and that is great. But I didn’t quite make my own goal of 60.000 and neither did I finish even one of my two stories.

But, to look on the bright side, I did move along in my original story quite a bit farther and I think I will be able to get it finished eventually. Hopefully before November 2010.

I try to keep writing at least 500 words a day since NaNo ended, but since the real world has caught up with me again this proves to be even more of a challenge than banging out 2000 words a day in November.

I am also itching to start revising and editing the story, but before I haven’t finished the damn first draft that would be a complete waste of time. But that just gives me more motivation to keep writing. Although by the time I finally get around to revising I probably won’t feel like actually going through all those endless pages again. But I’ll cross this bridge when I come to it.